High power laser diodes are commercially available. A failure mode for such diodes is traceable to stress introduced by the solder used to mount the diodes on a suitable substrate. In order to avoid stress, low temperature solders are used. But low temperature solders constrains the power output which could otherwise be significantly higher. Much higher power output could be obtained if the diodes could be mounted with high temperature solders. Unfortunately, the stress induced by the high temperature solders lead to unacceptable device failures.